Ever experienced an amazing story of customer service? Perhaps a business went above and beyond during your time with them. Or they won you over because of how they responded to one of your complaints.

When these stories occur, we often feel prompted to share about the business that astounded us when they come up as the subject of conversation. We may also feel compelled to leave them a positive review online.

Whether the business that went above and beyond realized it or not, they were taking a “service” approach to marketing.

The Service Approach

We’ve been talking about ways businesses can differentiate themselves from the competition through careful market positioning. A market position relies on the unique value your business provides to the customer, a value they cannot get if they go with “the other guys.”

In addition to setting yourself apart through things like cost and quality, you can also differentiate by offering incredible service. This will make your implant practice outperform other practices in your market, even if you offer the same prices.

In this way, your level of service begins to improve your brand identity… not to mention your success as a practice. It also leads to good reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations, boosting the number of implant leads that you receive.

Four Quick Service-Boosting Strategies

There are so many different ways to improve your patient experience, that it would be impossible to list them all. So, we list four specific things that we found to make a fast difference for patient experience:

1. Answer Inquiries On Social Media And Your Website Within 24 Hours.

By answering inquiries quickly, customers will feel heard and valued. However, you can’t just say you value their time; you have to demonstrate that through speedy responses. Many implant practices pay someone to monitor their web presence and check them each day at regular intervals. Other implant practice owners pay someone to monitor them on the weekdays and take over on the weekends.

2. Bring Your “A-Game” To All Chair Time.

Every dentist has good days and bad days. Every dentist has to deal with easy patients, and… not-so-easy patients. However, a service-oriented clinician cannot let outside circumstances affect how they treat patients in the chair. Treat everyone coming in for a consultation the way you would want to be treated, and develop ways to process through the frustrating moments. 

3. Give Away Quality Complimentary Items.

You probably own at least one complimentary pen that a business handed you in the past. Almost nobody rejects a free pen. This has led many dental offices to offer free pens, pencils, and stickers, and toothbrushes to everyone who stops in for a consultation or treatment. You can go one step past this by offering complimentary items of a higher quality. Something you may not think about is offering phone chargers and water bottles to patients. The higher the quality, the better.

4. Partner With A Virtual Patient Advocate (VPA).

A Virtual Patient Advocate (VPA) is an organization dedicated to helping qualified implant leads get connected with the care they need. This helps serious patients get help, and makes sure your chair time is maximized. You only work with implant leads who are ready to move forward in their process.

Again, these are far from the only ways to enhance and design your patient experience. The key is to place yourself in the shoes of the customer, and ask, “what would create an amazing story of customer service?”

If you want more tips increasing your service, or designing your experience, then book a free strategy call with us.